The week of June 10, Farm Journal is celebrating the next generation of American agriculture. Our goal is to encourage you to plan for the future and cultivate multigenerational success through the transfer of skills and knowledge. Think tomorrow, act today to align your asset, resource and financial legacy.
With three decades of leadership experience in ag retail and now as a consultant for Farrell Growth Group, Brad Oelmann highlights the universal characteristics needed for business leaders inside and outside ag retail.
The three most important characteristics in great leaders, according to Oelmann are:
- Creating a vision for the business
- Inspiring/Influencing others
- Empowering the team to get things done
“The next generation needs to know what it takes to be a great leader; understanding your own strengths and development areas are really important,” he says.”Once you know that, you will understand the gaps you have and how to fill them. My experience is that you can’t train your way into being good at all of them, so figure out how you have others fill in the areas where you need the help. I think current leaders can reinforce all these things, sharing success stories and failures in this area.”
Additional characteristics he references include: trust, respect, integrity, transparency, problem solving, passion, patience, resilience, communication, listening, empathy, gratitude, flexibility, seeking-to-learn mindset, innovation, accountability, courage, decisiveness, collaboration and self-awareness.
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